Washing Clothes

Hey all!

Not sure if this thread is available elsewhere. I'm sure many travelers hand wash clothing while in India. This is what I plan to do. Hopefully buckets are regularly available for this purpose. I've also heard that small sachets of washing powder are sold everywhere for a few rupees. Now, my question is about drying the clothes after they are washed. How do you go about hanging them? Is it best to carry a string of some sort to use as a clothing line?

Thanks!

Yep a bit of parachute cord or some other thin strong bit of string is invaluable for drying clothes hanging mossie nets etc!!

Small sachets are availabe all over and pretty much all hotel bathrooms have a plastic bucket!!

Be aware though some guesthouses frown on doing you own laundry as they supply an in house Dhobi Wallah who will wash and press for a small consideration!!

Smalls we usually wash ourselves and hang them in the bathroom or roof terrace/garden where available!!

Thanks Cyberhippie!

I guess I had bad experiences with having my clothing ruined when letting others wash it in South Africa so I much prefer washing it myself. Not that I'm taking anything expensive, just a preference.

So best to keep it hush hush if we are doing our own I guess?

Are there ever any closets with clothing hangers? One nice thing about traveling in South Africa is that there were clothing hangers in each room of every backpacker/hostel I stayed at.

In many hotel rooms, you will find almirahs with hangers for your clothes. Some rooms may not have them, esp in budget hotels.

Thanks Sanjay,

We are not staying in budget budget places so I guess we will have to see. It's not that it matters that much, was just curious to find out what others do. Many probably use the in-house clothing wash services. We may try it with cottons anyway...

you could buy a 'travel' washing line before you go, they are two lengths of elastic twisted together and with hooks at each end. you can ingeneously fix the hooks to door frames/window ledges/bed head etc. You poke your clothes through the twists so no need for pegs.
I'd recommend the dhobi wash for your big clothes (they come back very clean and pressed - but it is a vigourous wash) and just do your littl/delicate bits when you need to. there's usually a bucket in most accomodation (for bucket 'showers'), but take one of those 'universal plugs' in case there isn't a plug in the sink.
Also helpful is a small nailbrush to scrub your clothes (and your feet and nails). India can be very dusty!

Consider that water shortage might be a big issue in some places - though it might not be apparent to many tourists. Try not to use more than you need and consider using the dhobi wash as they are used to using water more efficiently in those areas.

re. the sachets of powder. yes, you can get them most places. The individual sachets generate more packaging waste per wash, so think about buying a slightly bigger sachet and tying it up with an elastic band.

If you're in a humid place (especially if it's monsoonal), you'll find it hard to get your clothes to dry unless there's somewhere sunny to put them.

sorry, this ramble has verged on a rant!

You really need the sun to dry your clothes.

If you can hang them outside they should dry quickly, unless, as Woodlouse says, it is monsoon time --- in which case they may go mouldy before they get dry! Even without actual rain

Nah Nick lacking a place outside to hang, clothes will dry in your room in most places, the east coast where you live being a notable exception from April onwards, I couldn't even get them to dry outsids one time in an April Puri, so humid was the weather!

We have to put stuff on an airer under a fan in rainy weather. That dries it. But when the relative humidity is around 90% nothing is going to feel really dry.

But for 95% of the year here stuff dries outside in a couple of hours. A heavy towel takes a little longer...

A hot ironing helps. And if stuff is given for washing at a hotel it will get ironed too.

Yep leave the fan on!!

Hey woodlouse - was glad to find your environmentally-minded comments. I completely agree and actually I am studying water scarcity as a masters thesis topic and so I am very conscious of the issues at hand.

I've never heard of travel washing lines, hum I will have to look around. Thanks for the nail brush tip too!

I suspect that PET is an environmentally bad material to buy, but...

You can get very light storage jars here in all sizes. Buy one for your washing powder.

And as long as you take it home for use in your kitchen, surely it's impact on the environment can't be that bad.

(I hope not: I have a kitchen full of the things )

I also prefer using re-usable jars Nick, I think it's fine. I've never heard of PET.

It's a kind of plastic, so I guess its manufacture is probably basically unsound.

But it is strong and light. A fraction of the weight of a glass jar.

Interesting! I've never heard of it. I wonder if it would be the same material used to make re-usable water bottles such as those of the 'Nalgene' brand.